Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the creative motivation of Japanese writers in the Taishō period and a significant feature of Japanese literature by studying the correlation between literature and architecture in the Taishō period, so as to understand people's mental image at that time.

Paper long abstract:

　When we take a general view of the literature of the Taishō period, we will find a very interesting issue, that is, many writers like to create works with rooms or buildings as the theme. They even draw floor plan for their novels. One of the most representative works is Koji Uno's "Yumemiruheya" and Taluho Inagaki's "watashitosonoie". However, this trend suddenly disappeared in the Shōwa period. Therefore, it can be said that this is a kind of sensibility peculiar to the literary world of Taishō.

　This paper will not only study the literary works and contemporary documents, but also talk about the representative buildings at that time. For example, the private residence "Nishou tei " built by Kinzo Watanabe, and the "Kiku Fuji Hotel", where many scholars regard it as study. It is said that this hotel is the inspiration for Uno Koji's works. In addition to the influence of "the movement for the improvement of living conditions" and the idea of Taishō Democracy, this phenomenon also has the influence of the concept of lifestyle introduced from the West. Especially after the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, apartments were built for the first time. The birth of the apartment brings people the concept of private room and privacy. Although there have been excellent studies on the correlation between literature and architecture in this period, such as Iwao Matsuyama's works, which has explored this theme from the perspective of urban studies, most of them have discussed the urban culture as inspiration for writers, but the discussion on the works was not deep enough. This paper will focus more on literary works. In recent years, most people have to stay in their rooms because of the impact of the COVID-19. The exploration of the imagination and thinking of the writers a hundred years ago about the room will also enable us to make new discoveries about our modern society.